Scholarly
communications in thetime of COVID-19
Meagan Phelan, Science Press Package Executive Director@MeaganPhelan @ScienceMagazine @AAAS

What you’ll learn today
What Science is seeing in terms of COVID submissions by authors
How the Science Press Package is working to support contextualized
communications of standard and COVID content (all on “immediate release” /no embargo)-Wellcome Trust rapid data-sharing agreement

What authors are saying about visibility at the preprint versus journal stage
What reporters covering this fast-moving content are saying about
challenges/limitations of covering non-embargoed studies
NOTE: We still need to do more data gathering from PIOs
@MeaganPhelan @ScienceMagazine @AAASAAASMission:
Advance science,engineering, andinnovation throughout theworld for the benefit of allpeople.

AAAS Goal:
Enhance communication
among scientists,
engineers, and the public@MeaganPhelan @ScienceMagazine @AAAS

Publishing in Journal Doesn’t
End with “Accept”

Acceptance at one of the Science family ofjournals marks the beginning of a separate
process to communicate scientists’ workwith public audiences@MeaganPhelan @ScienceMagazine @AAAS6,000+ reporters globallyTheSciencePressPackage
Team atAAAS@MeaganPhelan @ScienceMagazine @AAAS

5 science writers who “translate” science
4 Communications Associates (mainauthor “touch point”)
6 Journals
5 Online Press Packages built every
week, on EurekAlert!

Helping 6,000 Reporters Plan Their Story
Pipelines…

@MeaganPhelan @ScienceMagazine @AAAS

What’s at stake?

“When I was in Congress, Congressmen told
me they read news pieces on new research,
not the research itself.”- Former AAAS CEO Rush Holt, FormerCongressman@MeaganPhelan @ScienceMagazine @AAASWe want reporters tocover the science“right,” or not at all.

@MeaganPhelan @ScienceMagazine @AAASWe diagnose problems
in science
communication:

Hype happens
Basic research gets the boot@MeaganPhelan @ScienceMagazine @AAAS

Efforts that Matter“No” to hype
“Yes” to context“Yes” to limitations@MeaganPhelan @ScienceMagazine @AAAS

Opening doors for scientists to press
Differentiate: One-liner on how study moves field forward
Consider angles: Pitch “surprisingly newsworthy elements” (The Conversation)
Get personal: Is there a notable “personal story”?
Show us:video of methods/place/experiments/struggle
infographic (many free tools) to illustrate complicated dataBe transparent: What this study does *not* say?
Limitations can make an interesting story@MeaganPhelan @ScienceMagazine @AAAS

Opening doors for scientists to press,publicEngage
with local reporters
with foreign reporters
via teleconferences, connecting with many reporters
via Facebook Lives (post-pub), connecting with the public
Develop social media messages (post-pub)
What popular hashtags relate to the work?

@MeaganPhelan @ScienceMagazine @AAAS

First pandemic withpreprints
used at such scale@MeaganPhelan @ScienceMagazine @AAAS

@MeaganPhelan @ScienceMagazine @AAAS

@MeaganPhelan @ScienceMagazine @AAAS

What are we seeing at the Science journals?

JournalSubmissions

Accepts

Accept Rate

Preprint Ct% w/ preprints

Science1405

604%

459

33%

Science Advances

740

193%

246

33%

Science Immunology

161

85%

4025%

Science Robotics

400%

00%

Science Signaling
Science Translational
Medicine

18

16%

422%

356

82%

14140%

2684

964%

890

33%

@MeaganPhelan @ScienceMagazine @AAAS

Faster review

How isScience
operating in
COVID times?

Expert editor-guided peer review, including forstatistical rigor
Edits thatremove claims;
firm up conclusions by asking for more data;
improve reproducibility by asking for more methods

Focus on communicating context and limitations
Focus on broad, accurate dissemination@MeaganPhelan @ScienceMagazine @AAAS

CommunicatingCOVID-19 atScience Press
Package@MeaganPhelan @ScienceMagazine @AAAS• Issue lay summaries to press under embargo• Convey advances and limitations• Hold teleconferences (the same day)• Hold Facebook Lives• Highlight new research on social media• Share lay summaries w/ policymakers

@MeaganPhelan @ScienceMagazine @AAASAuthor feedback:preprint v journal visibility“We had an associated preprint and received some press interest fromthat, but the visibility expanded massively with publication in Science.”“Publishing in Science helped our article gain visibility within the field andgave it a stamp of approval that increased its profile substantially overthe preprint. Publishing in Science also helped our work enter into policy
and mainstream conversation almost immediately.”@MeaganPhelan @ScienceMagazine @AAAS

More author feedback from a
COVID-19 author:“Since publication of my Policy
Forum in Science, I have been
contacted by and met withrepresentatives of Gates
Foundation, Pew Charitable Trusts,and WHO to discuss various aspectsof the paper.”“Pick-up among policy people
seems to be much stronger than I
had even hoped.”@MeaganPhelan @ScienceMagazine @AAAS

Latest datafrom ourreporterembargosurvey

We ask reporters: How do you value
embargoes?
Very: 248 (45.8%)
Moderately: 221 (40.8%)
Not Very: 25 (4.6%)
No answer: 48 (8.9%)

N = 540+ reporters@MeaganPhelan @ScienceMagazine @AAASWe don't have the time to do the author + outside expert
interviews that we do when we have studies underembargo. – Helen Branswell, STATWhat doreporters say?

@MeaganPhelan @ScienceMagazine @AAAS

We have less time, so we may not be able to contact as
many outside sources (they are also very busy) – CarlZimmer, New York Times
It’s harder than ever to get timely outside comment giventhat the infectious disease experts are all swamped. –Lauran Neergaard, AP…we inevitably rely on fewer sources to evaluate thembecause of time pressure, with simpler sanity checks ofthe material rather than deeper parsing of methods(which is not good, to be clear, especially with some of
the terrible preprints out there). – Dan Vergano, BuzzFeed
News“Where I’ve seen reporters go
wrong on this is when they sort ofgrab these [preprints] because
they want to be first,” Aschwandensays. “We do have pressure to be
first and to break news, and I think
preprints seem to offer this shiny
opportunity to do that.”

Christie Aschwanden“If a study is so weak that it
warrants only critical coverage,
then it might be a good decision
not to give it more attention with astory,”(journalist, author, editor)- The Open Notebook@MeaganPhelan @ScienceMagazine @AAAS

How do we help authors with preprint
counterparts who are contacted by press?

Encourage author to engage
Author should convey to reporter, “my paper is under peer review but I’d like to take yourquestions now, to begin to answer them in-depth, so I can have answers ready when thepeer-reviewed version is available”
Author should return in-depth responses to reporter Sunday before publication, w/ peerreviewed version as it rolls out in SciPak@MeaganPhelan @ScienceMagazine @AAAS

“I use preprints to reduce thepressure on my work as it goes
into journal peer review.” – Yaniv
Erlich@MeaganPhelan @ScienceMagazine @AAAS

Question forreporters toconsider:@MeaganPhelan @ScienceMagazine @AAAS

What fraction of
preprints on COVID19 are not being
published injournals?

Science Press Package
work in Japan@MeaganPhelan @ScienceMagazine @AAAS

Questions?

@MeaganPhelan @ScienceMagazine @AAAS